Her Name was April
by Calliope Piper
Summary: RENT Mimi wants to know about April, who has remained a mystery. This is a oneshot, where Mark tells her the story. Rated T for language and some themes.


Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me. They belong to a genius named Jonathan Larson.

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It was March, and it was freezing in the loft. The fire from that morning had gone out, making the place feel similar to the tundra. Mimi pulled the ragged blanket tighter around her shoulders and tried to warm herself on her cup of tea and by walking around the room. _No use in huddling on the couch when you can be up and around,_ she thought. 

Where was Roger? He left a note saying that he was going "out", but where _was_ "out"? She wanted to talk to him about something that was lingering in the back of her mind for the past year.

She knocked on Mark's door, just to make sure he wasn't there. She didn't want to be caught snooping around.

Mimi walked to the closet full of boxes—boxes that had been Angel's… and April's. All of the boxes on the bottom shelf belonged to Roger's last girlfriend, someone who was a complete mystery to Mimi. No one wanted to talk about her more than saying that her smile was similar to Mimi's. She knew that April died, but she didn't know how. AIDS? Drug overdose? Fight? She thought that it was suicide, but she wasn't 100 sure. Mimi wanted answers, and she wanted them _now._

She sifted through the boxes: A yearbook from sophomore year of high school. Clothing. A poster from CBGB's. Jewelry. Guitar picks. Sheet music. Nothing that would give her any information about her. Not even recent pictures.

"Mimi, what are you doing?" It was Mark. She hadn't heard him come in.

"Um… looking for something."

"Cut the crap. Why are you going through her stuff?"

She sighed. She wanted Roger to explain this to her, not him. "I want to know about the mystery of April. Who she was, what she did, and why she did it."

The filmmaker pushed his glasses further up his nose and ran his hand through his hair. "You're sure you want to know?"

"Yes."

"Come sit down. This might take awhile."

Mimi and Mark sat down on the beat up green couch with the blanket wrapped around both of them. Mark's voice was strangely different from what it normally was as he told her all about the mysterious April.

"Her name was April Dane, and she was from Long Island. I'm not sure what her natural hair color was, considering she was always streaking it and dying it different colors. I think she was naturally a redhead. She had these piercing green eyes that either sparkled or were like ice. You could never tell with her.

"She lived in the building across from ours. Roger and I met her while he was having one of his tantrums on the front stoop of our building. She was wearing a red pleather mini-skirt with a skimpy top and knee-high black boots. April loved to wear the most skimpy and outrageous outfits possible, and wore so much make-up it wasn't even funny. She looked like a total prostitute. I knew from the moment she walked out of the building that they were destined to be together, because he stopped yelling at me to just stare at her. He threw his jacket at me and walked over and they started talking.

"Turns out she played bass for some rock band called the Well Hungarians and they were looking for a front man, since theirs overdosed on smack. Roger informed her that he played guitar and wrote songs and sang, so she told him to stop by her apartment later that night to see if he was good enough to play for them.

"One thing became another, and he not only was in the band, but he was also dating her. They seemed to be the perfect couple in the beginning. She moved in here, and everything was going along great. Now the loft, which was pretty packed as it was, with me, Rog, Collins, Benny, and Maureen, also had her in it."

"Did you like her?" Mimi asked.

Mark shrugged. "Ireally don't know.There was just something about her that made me not get too close to her. For the most part, she was this bubbly, cheerleader-type, but there were times were she was an evil, controlling bitch. She also got jealous really easily. Oh yeah, and she started Rog on smack. I don't think I'll forgive her for that. If it wasn't for her, he wouldn't have had to go through those 6 months of withdrawal, which were the worst for everyone.

"Anyway, moving on. So April and Roger would sit around the loft and play duets. April loved to sing—she had an amazing voice. Together, Rog and April were an amazing team.

"But then things started changing. They would come back here to the loft completely high and fighting over something. If Rog even looked at another girl, she would start screaming at him and threatening to leave him. Yet she was doing god-knows-what for The Man to get their smack. At that time, we had no money.

"They eventually stopped fighting, but that's because they were too high to care. I hated seeing them do that to themselves, but they wouldn't listen to me. They weren't careful with their needles. I saw them one time at one of their gigs sharing needles not only with each other, but also with their drummer and keyboardist. They could've gotten AIDS from any of those people. But no, they wouldn't listen to me.

"So what happened?" Mimi interrupted.

"I'm getting to that," he told her, and continued his story. "April started acting weirdly a few days before she killed herself. She wouldn't eat very much, barely slept, and would sit on the fire escape with her bass for long periods of time and just stare. She also started cutting. She told me that she used to do that when she was a teenager to try to deal with stress. She said that something was stressing her out, but refused to talk about it. I kept trying to get her to tell me, but she ended up throwing a shoe at me and telling me to go to hell.

"The night before it happened, the Well Hungarians played their final gig at CBGB's. Of course, none of them knew that it would be their last.

"She was wearing that red pleather mini-skirt along with a black lace top, fishnets, and lime green combat boots with electric blue laces. Her hair that night was blonde with streaks of purple and black. He was wearing his red plaid pants and an AC/DC t-shirt. They looked amazing.

"That night, they played the best I've ever seen. April knew it was her last time ever on that stage, ever playing the bass, and ever being with Roger. She put so much enthusiasm into her bass lines. The crowd went absolutely wild! Roger was so proud of her that night.

"The next day, it was only April and me in the loft. I was in my room, when I heard a knock. She came in and sat down on my bed next to me, where I was polishing my camera. 'Mark,' she said, 'what do you do when life gets really hard?' I told her that I go out filming and try to clear my thoughts. 'Has it ever gotten so hard that you would think of killing yourself?'

"I just stared at her. 'Don't say anything like that, April. I would never do anything like that. Ever. And neither should you.' She just smiled and nodded, but I could tell that there was something going on there. When I asked her what was wrong, and why we were having this conversation, she responded, 'Just curious. I wanted to see what kind of person you are.' And I believed her. Then she threw her arms around me and said, 'You know Mark, you're one of the greatest friends a girl can have. You're so understanding. And don't worry, I'm not planning to do anything like that.'

"I fucking believed her, Mimi! That was the stupidest thing I've ever done! I should have kept a closer watch on her. It's partially my fault that she fucking killed herself! If I had actually thought about that conversation, she might still be alive today!" He took off his glasses and wiped the tears that were spilling down his cheeks.

"Shh, Mark, it's not your fault. You couldn't have prevented it. The minute you stopped watching her, she would have done it."

He sadly nodded. "This part of the story is really hard to tell."

"It's okay. You can do it."

He put back on his glasses. "After that conversation, and after she had left the room, I decided to go filming in the park. When I came back, I heard the water running from the bathroom and figured that she was in the shower. I thought I heard crying, but it could have been from anyone in the building. These walls are so fucking paper-thin.

"After two hours of the water still being on, I knocked on the door and didn't receive an answer. I started yelling her name, and still got no response. I pushed open the door, and there she was, wearing her favorite outfit—the red skirt, black boots, and black lace top. There was blood everywhere, and a needle and bag of smack on the floor near by, right near a knife. The shower was only on to try and get me to think she was okay. A message was written on the mirror in green eyeliner that said 'We've got AIDS', with an envelope sealed with a kiss laying on the sink."

"What'd you do? And what did the note say?"

"I started screaming 'Oh my God' over and over. Then I ran to the phone and called 911 and started screaming at them to come quickly and that April killed herself. I didn't want Rog to see her like that, and thankfully he didn't. Benny and Collins showed up about a half hour after I found her, and they helped me explain to the police who she was and what the situation was. They took her away to the hospital, and we followed them. I took the envelope with me, and left a note for Roger on the counter, telling him to come to the hospital.

"Those few hours in the waiting room were the worst. Once Roger arrived, I gave him the note, and he was a complete wreck. He started screaming and crying and throwing things at the wall. He ripped the note in half and threw it out, but I made sure to get it."

"What'd it say?"

Mark got up from the couch and walked to the closet and took out April's bass, which was missing all of its strings. Inside of it, he pulled out a piece of pink paper that was taped together. It read:

_My dearest Roger,_

_Remember all of the good times. Remember last night. Remember our songs. Live your life to the fullest, because now you'll be living for me. Don't forget me, Rog. I should tell you that I'll always love you, no matter what. I hope you feel the same. I'm sorry I have to do this to you, but I can't go on living my life like this. I didn't know how else to deal with the pain of knowing that we've got AIDS, since this was the disease that killed my best friend. I can'tlet myselfdie like that.Go get yourself to a doctor and get checked out, because if I have AIDS, you do too. I love you Roger, more than you will ever know. Remember me, once in a while. Please promise me you'll try, okay Rog? If I ever make it to Heaven, I'll be your angel, always watching you. _

_Love, April _

"Oh my god Mark!" was all that Mimi could say after reading it.

He took back the letter and replaced it inside the bass and put it back in the closet, then moved back to the couch. "The doctor came into the waiting room and told us that she had lost too much blood, and that they did everything they could to save her. Roger started screaming at the doctor and just had a breakdown right there. He actually passed out and Collins had to carry him back the loft."

He took a deep breath. "And you know the rest. He spent a lot of time getting high, then I made him get off of it. Then 6 months of withdrawal, then you came into the scene."

Mimi hugged Mark. "Thank you for telling me. I'm glad I didn't ask Roger. It would've been too hard for him."

"Yeah it would have. If you have any more questions, ask me. Just don't let Rog catch you around her stuff. He'd throw a fit."

"Don't worry, I won't. Thanks, Mark. For everything."

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There you have it! Please review? It'll make me very happy! 


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